I don’t want to belittle anyone suffering from gout, but this suprised me. I have had it three or four times over the past ten years and the pain was intense, but the treatment was simple and cheap. My Dr prescribed inexpensive medication and within a day or two I was back to normal. Does it get harder to treat or can it lead to something more serious ?
I recently left my job and started working for myself when I applied for health insurance they offered me a policy, but with a lifetime exclusion for gout. The insurance company however will cover my high blood pressure, which I am currently taking two medications, am thrity pounds over weight, and I have a mutiple family members with heart disease.
Medications (all medications, not just gout ones) work differently on different people. Some people get immediate and full relief, like you did. Some get incomplete relief, or relief for some period of time before their symptoms return. Others get no relief at all.
I’m glad your medication worked well for you, but it doesn’t work well for everybody.
Gout commonly presents as intermittent acute attacks of joint pain and inflammation, classically (but not always) at the base of the big toe. These are usually self-limited but can be remarkably ameliorated with inexpensive medications.
A subset of patients may go on to have significant and more permanent joint injury, but many patients resolve just fine, often with simple agents such as indomethacin. Treatment in between attacks is usually directed at increasing excretion of uric acid with agents such as allopurinol or probenecid.
I have no idea why insurance policies exclude some things and permit others. As you point out, gout is not typically a particularly expensive condition to have, medically speaking.
Gout is a strange exception. Never heard of that before. Does it have something to do with being a pre-existing condition?
Indomethacin is insanely cheap. But eventually it will take longer and longer for it to knock out a serious gout attack. Allopurinol is also very cheap, and works well at preventing gout attacks in the first place. Both drugs, however, are very hard on the kidneys. My Dr. just switched me from allopurinol to Uloric. I found out my insurance company has to pay $600 a month for my urloric:eek:
My former boss had gout and swore by Orudis. You used to be able to buy it over the counter in the USA but they stopped selling it. You probably can get it legally OTC on line.
You might want to look at associations or clubs for the business you are in. Often associations have memeber health plans for their small businesses.
Are you missing something? Yup, hyperuricemia (HU)! High levels of uric acid in the blood.
(I’d be really curious, if I were you, to know if that health insurance policy also has a lifetime exclusion for HU.)
I’ve had HU for a couple of years but never realized my, almost two decades long, occasional, really vicious, knee pains were actually gout attacks. I was always able to point to an injury as the cause of the pain even though it really was a gout attack.
Indomethacin is amazingly effective, my first gout attack with it available was over after two doses. It’s also the only drug I’ve ever taken that came with it’s own drug, omeprazole.
Having HU (with, in my case, both gout and, joy of joys, uric acid kidney stones), gout is just a symptom. Treating my gout isn’t as important as treating the underlying cause.
Question for the Drs.
Having seen the commercials for Uloric, is there any reason to bother my doctor with questions about switching from allopurinol to febuxostat?
Thanks for the responses. It looks like CMC nailed it. When testes I always have a high uric level in my blood even if I am not having a gout attact. I also have had the joy of kidney stones. Sometimes I get pains in different joints mainly on the right side of my body. These pains while annoying are not normally bad enough to seek treatment for. I call it gout lite.
I pulled out my policy and it states “Benefits are not available for the following conditions :Gout and Hyperuricemia and related conditions and complications arising therefrom”
I guess if I get kidney stones again I’m paying the bill.
What I really liked about beginning to suffer from gout was that the medication to prevent it caused me to have a worse outbreak of gout. All is well now months down the track.
I worry about monkeying with uric acid levels through medication. Of course, high uric acid levels are associated with gout, but I was reading recently that one of the symptoms of multiple sclerosis is abnormally low uric acid levels. (Not that I am suggesting a causal connection, merely a correlation.) And I have also read that uric acid is an anti-oxidant.
I wonder whether we fully understand why our uric acid levels vary. For all we know, our body is increasing uric acid levels for some evolutionary reason, or in response to something that’s going on in the body.
I have occasional gout attacks, but I treat them with anti-inflammatories like indomethacin or sulindac. I’m really reluctant (maybe irrationally so) to start treating with one of the medicines that adjusts uric acid levels. Are there any long-term studies of such drugs?
Oh, and as to the OP: my first few gout attacks were easily resolved with indomethacin. However, you may find that the attacks get worse over time and that indomethacin becomes less effective in treating it. That’s what happened to me.
Probably not in the way you’d like, and certainly not in the way drug studies are done nowadays. However, allopurinol (Zyloprim) has been used for almost fifty years and while it’s possible there are still unknown hazards associated with its use, its toxicity profile would seem to be pretty well established.
I woke up in intense pain, and I won’t be able to get to a doctor today.
Anyone know of any home remedies that can help me?
I am even out of Motrin, but I will be getting some delivered from the store in a few minutes. I also have some leftover painkillers (Percocet, hydrocodone) but I don’t remember if they are effective against an accute gout attack.
I am dyin’ here—The Motrin has def. helped, and I am still thinking about taking a couple of painkillers, and I am drinking a huge bottle of pure black cherry juice, but I am still hardly able to stand.
Any other folk/natural/available at a grocery store remedies that anyone can suggest???
(and pkbites, thanks for the info—I have known about the “trigger foods” for a few years now, and I actually don’t eat any of the really well-known trigger foods except shellfish and beer, and not too much of those two for the most part…)
I don’t have gout proper, I have a form where the crystals are calcium pyrophosphade, but I use colchicine as most NSAIDs seem to make my BP go higher than we would like. Works well for me though it is pretty toxic.
One thing I love are the adhesive heating pad things, I put one on the area and the prolonged gentle heat helps sooth the pain. I elevate the foot and relax on the computer. Having something to do keeps my mind off the pain.
Some people react very badly to it, though. One dose was enough to have my husband throwing up so hard he ended up bloodshot. It was worse than the gout, which is an amazing thought.
I’m two months without an attack after taking one Tums daily. In the previous two months I had had two moderate attacks and a dull throb that was almost daily. Who knows if it’s directly related, but it seems to be working for me.
Originally Posted by pkbites View Post
Indomethacin is insanely cheap. :
Oh yeah. I didn’t call it a miracle drug did I now?
I haven’t had to take it for a couple of years but when I did it gave me stomach aches that Job would have cursed God and died to get rid of. And it gave me gas that made my butt scream for mercy from. I have a friend that told me the stuff makes him shit blood!:eek:
Gout is a true asshole of an affliction where you have to make some trade offs about what you’re willing to suffer with. It truly sucks, as do the remedies for it.
